NHK CosmoMedia

The subscription system for NHK CosmoMedia‘s satellite TV service was developed by Pinesoft to give NHK the performance and flexibility needed to develop their customer base, operate digital services and manage financial reporting.

Over the years it has seamlessly evolved to meet the ever changing requirements of NHK, as well as supporting additional routes to market (CA systems and DRM).

JSTV, the encrypted subscription package distributed by NHK Cosmomedia, provides an important service for Japanese business people travelling in Europe and a vital link with home for over 10,000 Japanese families based in Europe. It offers a 24 hr stream of live news, drama, sports, animation, and award winning films broadcast by satellite. The service is encrypted by NHK Cosmomedia and supplied along with NHK’s free service.

Service culture is all pervading in Japan so providing accurate and responsive customer communications is vital.

Credit card payments are handled inside the system with authorisations recorded and payments received in batches. Comprehensive transaction history is maintained and a document management system assists with retrieval of customer correspondence.

When a payment is authorised, Customiser sends a signal to authenticate the decoder card which is assigned to the set-top box.

If the contract is terminated or payments cease Customiser can issue the signal to deactivate the decoder card so that decryption ceases.